Sixteen stories in hybrid short story/screenplay format by first-time author Raymund Domingo will surely give you the shivers. Every page is a quick blast of terror. Read on. Have fun. You will want to bite your elbow after every ‘fade out’.
Available on Amazon Kindle.
1. Bogo
Malcolm Morgan, a collector of oddities, desperately needs something to spruce up his failing shop. One night, he gets what he needs. It’s the ultimate conversation piece. Only Malcolm didn’t see coming the dreadful fine print that accompanies the trove he now possesses.
2. Dweller
Howard and wife Agatha inherit a large estate from their employer who died of old age. The acres of land are strangely always fertile, bumper crops year in and year out as if the land is blessed by an unearthly force. Their stroke of luck however is short-lived when greed – and a pot of sunflower plant – precede over the wish (or warning?) of a dying man.
3.Embed
Ella is preyed upon by the malevolent spirit of her dead husband. Her ordeal brings a new coiled meaning into the wedding vow ‘till death do us part’…that there is no such thing.
4. Exotic
Set in 1905 New York in the sprawling estate of James Caswell, owner of the biggest and most far-out circus in the country. James arrives from a trip to an island in Southeast Asia bringing with him his latest exhibit – a family of cave dwellers. It turns out, they are not the friendly type.
5. Genus
Drew and Candice are video bloggers on a trip to the Lake of Tears, the remotest and most isolated body of water in the Midwest and home to three islets known as the Triplets. During a brutal winter, the islets’ shores were covered by 50-foot ice, a phenomenon known as ice shoves. Now totally thawed, the famous islets are a burial place of wildlife that perished in the surge of ice, fallen coniferous trees, and…
6. Dolor
Jimmy robs the prize possession of the neighborhood octogenarian entomologist and suffers fleshy torture due to the misdeed.
7. Baby Blues
Todd and Gary welcome the arrival of baby June from a surrogate mother who has other things in mind other than the kind deed and the $60,000 surrogacy fee.
8. To Give Life
Ethel lives a frugal existence. With no known family and no real friends, she virtually is a recluse. A day in her life is a day of poverty, chastity, and obedience like they are divine commandments. Her neighbors think she’s a creep or crazy. Who is she?
9. Mumuh
Inspired by popular Filipino folklore, Mumuh tells a story about respecting the dead and the conventional etiquette in attending a funeral.
10. Goons, Guns, and Gold
Duke and his cohorts hatch a caper on an island inhabited only by an old man. What they are after are gold nuggets. What they get instead is six feet of shudder.
11. Job 1:7
The out-of-towner comes on a neighborhood of his choice, poking into the lives of ordinary folk, unshrouding, and stirring their innermost secrets. Is he the devil? The grim reaper? Or an angel on a mission to test man’s outlook of right and wrong?
12. Paper Or Plastic
Nature has her unique and strange way of planting a gripe and exacting payback to those she considers toxins and contaminants. Don’t be a litterbug!
13. Fatberg
Ever wonder what goes on under our pretty little houses, beneath streets and buildings? Gushing through those old, sludge-filled sewer pipes and settling down in often chilly, dirty, and damp tunnels?
14. Mind Your Ps And Qs
Kevin and Frances are are grown-up bullies. Is it genetic, covid fatigue, or simply mental? They poke fun and ridicule at anyone who comes into their crosshair. No one is safe from this two. Not even George, their good-natured 70-year-old neighbor across the street who is their favorite. But misdeeds don’t go unpunished, and nature sometimes deem it right to pull-off an ill-fated payback.
15. Kidnap-For-Ransom
Mike is a one-of-a-kind hooligan. You can say he’s ingenious. He snatches the body of a deceased person-only the affluent- lying in repose in a funeral home and demands ransom money from the grieving family. His latest “hostage” would not take the desecration sitting down, or lying down, no pun intended. And Mike realizes the dire consequences of profiteering the dead.
16. I Can Write Like Stephen King!
Nestor idolizes world renowned horror writer Stephen King that he’s willing to give it all – 24/7 – just to follow his hero’s footsteps, but he forgets that sometimes the spirit is willing but the body is weak.
RAYMUND DOMINGO 